The Monday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

PETER MACKAY STAYING OUT OF TORY LEADERSHIP RACE: Former cabinet minister Peter MacKay says he won’t run for the Conservative leadership, ending a summer of speculation. The one-time Nova Scotia MP who now is working as a lawyer in Toronto, says the needs of his young family are his first priority and it would be asking too much of them to jump back into politics. He and wife, human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam, have two young children — Kian, aged 3, and 11-month-old Valentia. MacKay said his decision came only after a summer of talking with friends and colleagues.

RESEARCHERS FIND SECOND FRANKLIN SHIP: The second ship from Sir John Franklin’s doomed 19th-century search for the Northwest Passage has been found. The Arctic Research Foundation says the HMS Terror has been located in the Arctic waters along the fabled waterway. The research foundation was one of the groups participating in the search. The wreck of Franklin’s other ship, the Erebus, was found in 2014 about 11 metres below the surface in the Queen Maud Gulf, along the central Arctic coastline.

BONO URGES TRUDEAU NOT TO LET GO OF UN’S AID SPENDING TARGET: U2 frontman Bono is urging Justin Trudeau to keep sight of a United Nations foreign-aid spending goal that the prime minister has already called too ambitious over the next couple of years. In an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press, the Irish rock star praised Canada for showing an openness to the world at a time when many countries have been retreating deeper into isolation. But Bono, who will meet with Trudeau this weekend at a development conference, hopes the UN’s recommended aid-spending objective of at least 0.7 per cent of a country’s gross national income remains on the prime minister’s radar. Last year, Canada was well below that goal after committing 0.28 per cent.

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CROWN SAYS LAWSUIT COULD ‘DESTROY’ MEDICARE: The British Columbia government says a lawsuit challenging the public health-care system risks propelling the country toward a two-tier model that would undermine the Canadian principle of equal medical access for all. Crown lawyer Jonathan Penner told a B.C. Supreme Court that a legal challenge looking to change the laws around private insurance and doctors’ billing practices would create incentives that would drain the public system of workers and likely lengthen patient wait times. Cambie Surgery Centre, a private surgical clinic in Vancouver, is suing the B.C. government for stopping doctors from providing medically necessary treatments in both the public and private systems, as well as for forbidding private insurance for core medical services.

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ROYAL VISIT TO B.C., YUKON TO INCLUDE THE CHILDREN: The royal couple is scheduled for a busy tour of British Columbia and Yukon, with bear watching and fishing included in the itinerary for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are also set to visit Vancouver’s infamous Downtown Eastside. Full details of their trip have been released by Kensington Palace, which confirms that Prince William and his wife Kate will bring their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. They arrive on the afternoon of Sept. 24.

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MILITARY COP CHARGED WITH SEX ASSAULT: Military police say they have charged one of their own with sexual assault. Sgt. Kevin MacIntyre, a military police officer at Canadian Forces Base Halifax, faces one count of sexual assault in connection with an alleged incident in Glasgow, Scotland, last year.The Department of National Defence says MacIntyre and the alleged victim, also a member of the Forces, were participating in a training exercise at the time.

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POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN AND AGRIUM TO MERGE: Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan and Agrium have agreed to merge in a deal that would create a dominant player in the global agricultural industry worth an estimated US$36 billion. The pact announced Monday brings together Saskatoon-based PotashCorp’s huge fertilizer mining operations with Calgary-based Agrium’s extensive global direct-to-farmer retail network, to create what they say will be the largest crop nutrient company in the world with close to 20,000 employees operating in 18 countries. The Agrium-PotashCorp deal is just the latest in a wave of major mergers or acquisitions that affect farmers, including DuPont and Dow Chemical Co., and Bayer AG and Monsanto Co.

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CLOUDS OF UNCERTAINTY GATHER AROUND ENERGY EAST: Doubts are mounting over whether the Energy East Pipeline will ever see the light of day after the National Energy Board scrapped the panel that was reviewing the project over concerns about bias. The CIBC said Monday it believes the development has a one-in-four chance of getting built, while an analyst said the pipeline regulatory process has become so “murky” and “messy” due to political pressure that it’s difficult to say that any pipeline approval can be assured. On Friday, the National Energy Board announced that the three people overseeing the review of Energy East were stepping down following complaints that two of them met last year with former Quebec premier Jean Charest, a consultant for developer TransCanada at the time, to discuss the pipeline.

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B.C. PROVINCIAL POLITICIAN PAT PIMM CHARGED: A provincial politician in British Columbia is due in court Tuesday after being charged with assault. The province’s Criminal Justice branch says the alleged assault took place in Dawson Creek on August 13. Peace River North MLA Pat Pimm revealed the unspecified allegations last month, and announced he would quit the B.C. Liberal caucus and sit as an independent while the matter is before the courts.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

The Monday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

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